I don’t know if its nesting or the new year or what, but lately I’ve been a little obsessed with plans to get organized before the baby comes. Unfortunately, there are no neat freaks living in this house, but I’m going to try my best to make sure everything has a place as we attempt to put our house back together after all this remodeling. Ask Josh, I’ve bought bins, plastic drawers, boxes, and dog-eared the organization stuff in the Ikea catalog that I plan to buy on our next trip out there.
So far I’m making good progress. Last week I totally de-junked, cleaned, and organized the fridge. Man did it need it!! Next I organized the pots and pans cabinet and an entire row of kitchen drawers.
Later in the week, I finally found the perfect drawers (from Wal Mart) that slid into my linen closet like a glove! (I’ve been on the hunt for a long time!) With my perfect drawers ready to go, it was time for a total overhaul on the linen closet. I can honestly say its now 100% junk free (maybe for the first time ever). It’s so pretty and organized and everything has its place. I found myself opening the doors and just admiring it’s loveliness.
(I probably should have taken a “before” photo so you know how ca-razy this closet looked before I whipped it into shape!)
PLUS, there’s even extra room for baby stuff on that lower shelf (I’ll probably put in a storage basket or some more smaller drawers) and an entire huge empty bin on bottom! I LOVE IT! It feels so good.
Anyway – so while I’ve been on this organizational kick, I got an email from one of my former Britt Girls, Paige. Paige is so talented (and writes an awesome blog BTW)! She created this weekly schedule with a bunch of Britt-ish Designs products and offered it to me & my blog readers as a Quick Page giveaway! Of course I said YES!!! I thought it was so cute and wanted to share it with everyone.
Here’s Paige’s completed Daily Life schedule (with all her personal info/schedule blurred).
Isn’t this a great way to get organized!? Josh and I have been watching Supernanny lately (I’ve ALWAYS loved this show and watched it on my own for years, but I’ve been making Josh watch it with me lately as “training”! HAHA). In this week’s episode Jo taught the parents how crucial a schedule is for a family with children. Josh & I talked about how kids thrive on a schedule, mom’s happier and more ‘together’ and how we’ll definitely want to do that with our babies.
Here’s what the Quick Page looks like. All ready for you to pop in your own schedule and photos if you want!
Speaking of schedules, I’m reading “Baby Wise” right now. A friend recommended it, and I love it so far!! I’m only about 1/3 through it, so I’ll give a full review when I’m done.
So that’s how I’ve been getting my house organized lately. Simplify, simplify, simplify. That’s my motto. Throw out the junk, put everything in its place.
Do you have any great organization tips? I’ve still got TONS of house to get organized. Right now in fact, I’m sitting at a very messy desk and work area. Maybe after I eat lunch I’ll get some cleaning/organizing done in this area. Yes, I think I will!
You totally had me laughing at opening the door and just looking at how organized your closet is now. I have been doing a lot of organizing myself lately and I have been doing the same thing! Just standing there staring at open drawers. lol
For my desk I found a picnic utensil basket on clearance at Target last fall. It's perfect because it has 3 smaller compartments (usually for spoons, forks, and knives) that I use for pens and other little things, and then it has a bigger place where napkins should go that I use for the mail. It works perfectly for all the things that usually clutter up my desk. I actually bought two and the kids have one on their desk too. 🙂
Love the QP made by Paige, and thanks for sharing!!
And lastly, I have to say we love the Babywise book too!! I wish I would have known to fallow it at least a little bit with my first. I think she would have been a much easier baby if we'd learned to (loosely) fallow a schedule. 🙂
Obviously I am super scheduled. Sometimes I have to be a little less rigid with my schedule, and it gets hard in the summer with a baby who sleeps at 6:30 and dinner outside is just getting going at a BBQ. BUT I am all for a schedule every single day. It's hard for kids to understand what's going when if they don't have anything to compare it to. I love that closet shot! Looks great. It always feels so good to find just the right thing you need to complete a project. I am struggling with my desk too. Back in Texas I had a whole little office nook room and I spent a whole two weeks working on it. I had about 12 mesh letter sorters all labels and I could pile away in an organized manner. When we moved I don't have that, I just have a smaller desk and the piles (as I have mentioned) are driving me crazy. I think I'm about to go back to my mesh letter sorters. I love winter for the sake of staying inside and getting stuff done you can't get to in the summer when you're hanging out with friends a lot more. It's a good ying-yang. Seasons, I mean. Have fun nesting.
Thank you so much for the qp! I am in the nesting stage, too. I've been going CRAZY cleaning and organizing – it's awesome! In case your baby refuses to follow BabyWise (like my first did) then might I suggest Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child? My first was colicky and miserable, and the ideas in the book really helped. I stayed with the same philosophy with my 2nd, and she was a DREAM at taking naps (she still naps to this day, and she's 4!). I am reading it right now in preparation for baby #3 and I find myself nodding through the whole book, remembering how it was with a newborn.
You're almost due! Can't wait to see pictures of your princess.
A couple things. When I had my twins (6 years ago), keeping up with them and a house was truly overwhelming. Then I found http://www.flylady.net via a Good Housekeeping article and it was love at first read. I don't follow every single thing she says to a T (For instance, I do not dry my sink with a towel after each use. That's going a bit far for me, but I do make sure it is cleared and rinsed every night.), and I don't have emotional attachments to my clutter that she addresses, but if you sift through some of that then you find an amazing way to get a basic routine down for your house and family. It saved my sanity, and it helped me to not nag my husband for help with the post baby bedtime cleanup. My house became a well oiled machine coupled with the routines for my twins I learned from The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West.
(I was personally a fan of that book…it's a gentler approach to sleep training than Baby Wise. My girls never had major sleep issues and I attribute a lot of that to what I learned from her early on and as they grew, how to adjust those routines. Can't recommend it enough!)
I wish you the best of luck!
You are soooo nesting Britt! 🙂 I was just going to say…don't beat yourself up if your baby doesn't "do" Babywise. I tried my hardest with it and it didn't work for my oldest ds. I was so hard on myself and felt like a failure as a Mom. I will tell you from personal experience that it doesn't hurt to hold your baby just because…or let them sleep in their carseat. 😉 My second ds would ONLY sleep in his carseat for months. Anyway, I can tell you're going to be a good Mommy!
I also used the sleep lady's guide by Kim West. Worked like a charm.
it's nesting for sure!
Just thought I'd second the thumbs up for Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. It saved me with my first. Thanks for the QP!
I used the babywise system and I will tell you it is totally a liberating feeling as a parent. I was slightly less schedulded…but all three of my kiddos were sleeping through the night by 4 weeks and were doing at least 6 hours by 2.5
Ah, the nuances of baby sleep habits. My first was a TERRIBLE sleeper (partly my fault, I think!) so I read a lot in an attempt to fix his bad habits. My favorite book was Goodnight, Sleep Tight by Kim West. I couldn't do the cry it out thing, and I wanted to breastfeed on demand for as long as possible, so the super strict scheduling of BabyWise wasn't a good fit for us, but Kim's book had some great tips on getting baby into a rhythm early on. When our second baby came along, I started to gently shape her sleep habits, and she's a much better sleeper. Here's hoping you're blessed with a good sleeper, Britt!
I'm not a schedule kind of gal, but one of the best sleep aids ever is the Miracle Blanket swaddling blanket. My kid slept like a champ in that thing! He actually was an awesome sleeper for his whole first year, so we didn't need any of the sleep books. But, after he started walking, the sleep stuff went down the tubes! Just remember that every baby is different and every phase is different. Once you figure them out, they change on you. And that is some of the fun of parenting! Have fun reading the books and finding your path. While you have time to read, I'll recommend How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk. You won't need the info for a few years, but you'll have time to read it now! 🙂 Have fun!
Sounds like Nesting to me! 🙂
Or just OCD like me (which you don't have to be prego to clean /organize closets) 🙂
Your closet looks amazing! I'm a sucker for an pretty organized space. My linen closet needs a revamp after the crazy holidays! I just did the pantry this week and went nuts with the label maker!
I never read babywise but a MUST OWN book for every new (and 2nd time, 3rd time… Parents is :
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluthhttp://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Sleep-Habits-Happy-Child/dp/0345486455/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296170205&sr=8-1
LIFE CHANGING! So many "ah ha" moments while reading this book and training our kids to SLEEP! 🙂 LOVE IT!
Happy Nesting!
Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave in the DigiFree category today [28 Jan 12:00am GMT]. Thanks, Maria
Hi Britt,
One thing that always helps me when I am organizing a big space or a small space is to have 3 big boxes or bags. 1.Trash 2.Keep 3.Donate It seems to help things move along much quicker! 🙂
Sounds to me like you're nesting! But I think the organize and simplify thing is sort of a contagion this year…or maybe too much stuff and clutter is an epidemic? Thank you for the goodie, and best of luck. My babies never slept all night…they still don't and they're 18, 17, and 15. But *I* sleep all night and that's sometimes all that matters!! Haha…
What a great idea. I don't have kids but I am taking care of my mom who has been sick with pneumonia and recently got out of the hospital and I have daily duties to care for her. A great way to organize and scrapbook her progress. Thanks for the freebie! Kweta